apologetics theology culture worship

​In my years of studying apologetics, several themes tend to pop up over and over again. This post will address the 5 questions I think every Christian needs to be aware of, and be able to answer.

All of these questions require further commentary, and I plan to write a blog post to respond to each one individually in the future. (As I post them, I will link them below.) For now, I will offer some "barebones" quick answers that can easily be committed to memory.

​When the original documents no longer exist, scholars use a science called textual criticism to reconstruct the wording of ancient texts. When they have a lot of manuscripts (handwritten copies), and early manuscripts, they can do this with a great deal of accuracy. The New Testament documents have more manuscripts and earlier manuscripts to support their accuracy than any work of ancient classical literature. In fact, it has been copied with 99.5% accuracy, and the .5% in question doesn’t affect any core Christian doctrine.

Esteemed historian and New Testament scholar Gary Habermas collected over 1,400 of the most critical scholarly works written between 1975 and 2003 about the resurrection. These works ranged from ultra-liberal to far-right conservative. He discovered that virtually every scholar agreed on several points surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. Here are four of them :

1.Jesus died by Roman crucifixion. 2.Jesus’ disciples believed He rose from the dead and appeared to them, and they
were willing to suffer and die for these beliefs. 3.Church persecutor Paul suddenly became a Christian, after having an experience
with what he believed was the risen Jesus. 4.The brother of Jesus and skeptic James was suddenly converted after he believed
he saw the risen Jesus.

Habermas noted that around 75% of scholars also agree that Jesus’ tomb was found empty. The best explanation of these "minimal facts" is that Jesus was, in fact, resurrected from the dead!

Question #3: Has science disproved God?

Scientists study the material world, and by definition, God is not material. The statement, “God does not exist” is not a statement of science, but it's aphilosophicalstatement that cannot be proven in a lab. In order for scientists to assert that God does not exist, they have to filter their evidence through the philosophical lens ofmaterialism, which excludes the possibility of anything outside the material realm.Frank Turek offers this illustration in his book, Stealing From God:

To say that a scientist can disprove the existence of God is like saying amechanic can disprove the existence of Henry Ford . It doesn’t follow.

When Americans hear the word "slave," we think of the abuse and forced labor of African Americans in the antebellum South. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word 'ebed, which is often translated "slave" in English, did not carry the same negative connotation it does in our modern context. In ancient Israel, this type of servanthoodwas a system in which a destitute person couldvoluntarilywork to pay off a debt. Although not a perfect system, they were given food, shelter, legal rights and protection from physical mistreatment. After seven years, they were released from debt and servitude and given a generous gift of flocks, wine, and grain.(1)In some cases, the Israelites kept servants from surrounding nations as a result of war, but they were commanded to treat them humanely, and those servants were also protected from mistreatment under biblical law.(2)Human trafficking was punishable by death in the Old Testament.(3)
​Roman slavery in the time of the New Testament is a bit more like the "chattel" slavery we are acquainted with in a modern context. However, nowhere in the New Testament is this type of slavery condoned. 85-90% of the Roman population were slaves, and encouraging slaves to rebel against their masters would have meant execution or branding. Instead, the Apostle Paul taught that slaves were on equal terms with free people in the eyes of God,(4)and encouraged change, beginning in the heart.(5)This radically counter-cultural teaching began to play out in history and would eventually inspire people like John Wesley and William Wilberforce to oppose modern slavery and support abolition.

*For a deeper look at the more problematic Bible passages regarding slavery, I recommend Paul Copan's book, Is God A Moral Monster?

​The claim that Jesus isn't mentioned anywhere outside the Bible and may not have actually existed tends to make the rounds on social media from time to time. The answer to this question is simple:

There are ten known, non-Christian sources that mention Jesus as an actual person within 150 years of His life. He is mentioned by Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Plegon, Thallus, Seutonius, Lucian, Celsus, Mara Bar-Serapion and the Jewish Talmud. This does not include the abundance of Christian historical sources who wrote about Him, including the eyewitnesses.

What are some other questions you think Christians should be ready to answer? Please comment or reply below!

Who is the god of this world and how he has different attributes from the God of heaven and earth, the Ancient of days the God of Bethel, etc.?
Where exactly is this everlasting kingdom? Heaven and earth shall pass away the only place I could find If I'm not mistaken that is eternal is hell.
Jesus quoted scripture whenever possible why questions aren't answer using scripture ie concerning sacrifice scripture states that they sacrificed to devils, the host of heaven and not God? When I read answers to that question that scripture isn't quoted.

There are new theories on archaeology and Jesus' resurrection like the Nazareth Inscription discovered in 1878. Its been over 140 yrs since its discovery and RARELY does anyone talk about it, including this post.

Reply

Alisa Childers

10/24/2017 08:55:58 am

Hi Rick, in my opinion, the Nazareth Inscription is not a strong piece of evidence.... this is probably why you don't hear many apologists talking about it.

Reply

Jake Raymond

10/24/2017 08:45:49 am

How might answer that Jesus was based off Horus, Mithras, et. al concisely? I know He wasn't, but I want a simple way to explain that.

Reply

Alisa Childers

10/24/2017 08:57:25 am

Hi Jake, J. Warner Wallace has written a good amount about this at www.coldcasechristianity.com. You can go over there and put "Mithras" in the search bar and a whole bunch of articles and podcasts will pop up.

I will try and write on this in the future as well!

Reply

gary

1/15/2018 02:27:42 pm

When I tell Christians that I believe that it is it is wrong and foolish to believe any truth claim “by faith”, they complain. “You obviously don’t understand the word ‘faith’. We all use faith in many areas of our lives.”

A typical evangelical Christian’s definition of faith: Faith is trust based on past performance. It is faith in a person, not so much the claims about that person. It is based on personal knowledge of that person gained by personal experience.

Skeptic: But don’t you believe that faith is a gift from God as the Apostle Paul claims in his Epistle to the Ephesians?

Christian: Yes. The faith that leads us to personally grasp hold of the promises God made to us in Christ Jesus is something that is given to us.

Skeptic: So if we combine these two statements we have this: Faith is trust based on personal knowledge about someone (or some thing); a personal knowledge that is given to us as a gift from God.

Isn’t this statement saying that it is impossible to believe in Jesus as one’s god unless Jesus has gifted you the knowledge (about him) to believe? If that is true, what is the point of Christian apologetics? If only God can flip the switch in the human heart (brain) to believe, why do Christian apologists go to such lengths to debate evidence in an effort to convert skeptical non-believers? And why do Christian apologists accuse skeptics of being biased against “good” evidence, when what they really believe is that no amount of good evidence will ever convince the skeptic to believe in Jesus as his or her Savior? If faith is truly a gift from God, debating evidence is pointless.